Welch Machine Inc.

Welch Machine Inc., a woman-owned small business based in Harper, Kansas, manufactures precision-machined aerospace and aviation components for the Department of Defense as a prime contractor exclusively under total small business set-asides, holding five active single-award Indefinite Delivery Contracts with the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation worth a combined $4.85 million in ceiling value. The company operates as a Subchapter S corporation and is registered as a woman-owned business concern in SAM.

DLA Aviation dominates Welch Machine's customer footprint and contract structure. Of 259 total prime awards spanning back to 1979, DLA Aviation accounts for 175 awards (67% of the portfolio) representing $10.3 million in combined potential value — a 94% share of the vendor's $10.9 million aggregate potential value. The remaining customer agencies (Department of the Air Force, DLA Troop Support Hardware, DLA Land and Maritime, and thirteen others) collectively carry less than $600 thousand in potential value. The second-ranked customer by award count, the Department of the Air Force, appears in the portfolio with 29 awards but carries no stated dollar value in the source, indicating small transactional orders or purchases.

Welch Machine's capability portfolio is tightly scoped to DLA Aviation's aircraft spares procurement mission. The vendor manufactures flutter dampeners, post and flap screw liners, nose gear shafts, shaft assemblies for stabilizers, engine hanger cones, hydraulic cylinders, hydraulic couplings, and spring cartridge casings — components spanning PSC categories for airframe structural components (149 awards), aircraft hydraulic and de-icing system components (51 awards), and landing gear components (27 awards). NAICS classification centers on 177 awards in Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing. Representative recent work includes a $49,262 purchase order awarded March 9, 2026 for spring cartridge casings (50 units, delivery August 6, 2026), a $25,101 delivery order awarded December 19, 2025 for shaft assembly stabilizer components (completion June 17, 2026), and a $28,695 delivery order awarded May 28, 2025 for engine hanger cones (completion November 24, 2025). All work is performed at Welch Machine's manufacturing facility in Harper, Kansas, with deliverables shipped to DLA Aviation depots and military installations.

Welch Machine holds five active single-award IDCs with DLA Aviation: a $1.999 million contract for shaft assemblies (completion March 2, 2027), a $1.999 million contract for various aerospace components including flutter dampeners (completion May 22, 2030), a $350 thousand contract for precision-machined aerospace and aviation components (completion November 11, 2030), and two earlier $250 thousand contracts for flutter dampeners (July 18, 2027) and post and flap screw liners (March 20, 2027). These vehicles anchor the vendor's prime footprint; all five IDCs carry total small business set-asides. Task orders against these IDCs are firm fixed-price delivery orders typically ranging from $5,000 to $36,700 per order.

Activity has declined from eighteen awards in 2022 to three in the first quarter of 2026, suggesting volume concentration in prior years rather than recent growth momentum. Only two awards face ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months with a combined potential value of $59 thousand, indicating minimal recompete exposure in that window. The vendor's combined dollars obligated stand at $5.7 million against $10.9 million in combined potential value (52% invoiced, 48% remaining to be obligated), reflecting a backlog of unfilled delivery-order capacity under the active IDCs. Welch Machine maintains no subcontractor role in the award footprint and reports no federal grant or consortia-member participation — the vendor operates exclusively as a prime contractor to DLA Aviation under small-business set-asides.

Manufacturer of aircraft parts and assemblies, general machining.